Latest revision as of 07:07, 21 June 2014

Contents

Description

Open Embedded is the name of a project which seeks to provide embedded Linux distributions, built from scratch. Open Embedded is not, itself, an embedded Linux distribution. Rather it is a meta-distribution.

(See also: poky)
The Project is now being carried forward by the linux foundation named as Yocto Project.
even with the new name most of the core components remain same. Yocto project uses Poky as their default distribution platform.

Rationale

While the distribution used for most embedded systems has many custom elements, there are significant portions
of the software on consumer electronics products which could be standardized and utilized from the same source.

Open Embedded may represent a possible software base that could become a de-facto standard embedded distribution of Linux.

How to validate

Sample Results

Case Study 1

Leon Woestenberg wrote (in Sep, 2007):

I became an OE user when I found that OE automated a lot more than
buildroot when I started adding packages. After that experience I
decided to use OE at work.

At work we create firmware, which is read-only embedded software which
the user cannot install to, or modify in any way (other than
overwrite) for 24/7 99.999% availability applications. Also, no build
dependency on target availability during build: No on-target
post-install scripts, the final image must be fully host-created. That
means, having full control of what happens, minimal cruft. Must build
on a multiple of (modern) Linux hosts distro's.

Bottom-line: paranoid control freak approach

I am the OE evangelist, that is, had to persuade to have my co-workers
see the benefits of using OE. That worked best when I showed them how
I could solve a problem more quickly than they could with buildroot,
or LFS. The problem often remains the steep learning curve, i.e.
people do often have some Makefile/autoconf experience but not
necessarely python/bitbake.

Bottom line: Show when OE works when the 'problem solving' leverage is highest.

How do we use OpenEmbedded:

We cannot afford to follow the org.oe.dev. head developments. The head is where fixes get fixed. Takes too much time away from the developers.

upstream. Angstrom is excellent, but testing OE against Angstrom only
drives OE away from the embedded domain IMHO.

Unbitrot (Refresh) a distro other than Angstrom, preferably a more

minimal one.

Documentation.

It's there, but you have to know what you are looking for. Most people don't know, or don't look.

I have yet to see a developer walk in with OE experience. Buildroot

knowledge is a big plus though.

The best thing I would envision (and I would propose as a OE vision), is that OE would be funded by the semiconductor and board manufacturers to support their silicon and boards, so that in 3 years, everyone of them could mention "Enabled by OpenEmbedded".

Case Study 2

Future Work/Action Items

Tim Bird met with Phil Blundell and Tim Ansell at Linuxconf Australia in 2005 and discussed
some possible ways the forum might sponsor Open Embedded.

Here are some ideas:

create an installer, which automatically copes with weird distros (I had problems getting OE installed, but then I use Mandrake)

it should validate that all required packages are installed, and if not present, install them

OE has a somewhat long list of pre-requisites

sponsor a conference/retreat of the core OE developers

do nightly builds (and testing?) of various full-distro recipes

do improvements to bitbake to solve the memory/performance problems.

need to identify if these are python issues (dependency graph memory consumption seems to be)

try to make bitbake less fragile

have a way to freeze/sign a recipe collection for a known-good distro?

canonicalize workarounds to issues caused by autoconf badness (inability to support cross-building)

Tim and Phil both said that contract money might not influence their
contribution levels (they are maxed out now). Changing their
focus with money might be detrimental (it might just take the fun
out of it.) So, outside contractors seems like the better way to
go for now.

CELF sponsorship

The CE Linux Forum sponsored some work on open embedded. In 2006, CELF hired
a contractor (Marcin Juskiewicz) to work on a few items. Marcin created an celinux-test
distribution for the CE Linux Forum test lab. Among other things, this distro included a
package of the Linux Test Project software. This distro should be available in
the OE snapshot from February 27, 2007. He also built a system to mirror OE sources
onto a machine in the CE Linux forum test lab.